Sunday, 16 July 2017

Inspirations - Galaxy 4

Or "Galaxy Four", as it is often written. It's the sole contribution of William Emms, though he did submit other story ideas later that didn't make it into production. One story - "The Imps" - almost got made early in Patrick Troughton's run, and in the 1980's he wrote a Doctor Who make-your-own-adventure book.
It's the start of Season Three, and this is the first story properly story-edited by Donald Tosh, with John Wiles producing, though Verity Lambert hasn't left yet. They were unhappy that William Hartnell and Maureen O'Brien changed a lot of their dialogue - though Emms thought they improved some of it. Noting how unhappy O'Brien was, they decided to write her out at the next available opportunity, thinking she wanted to leave.
Peter Purves is on record as being dissatisfied with his role, claiming that he was basically given Barbara's role and lines to perform. He'd practically been leading man in his last story, but here he spends much of his time prisoner of the female Drahvins.
The main story inspiration is that you should never judge by appearances. The beautiful humanoids are the villains, and the monstrous-looking aliens are actually quite nice.

Emms' original scripts had the Drahvins all male, led by a man named Gar. It was Verity Lambert who decided that they should become female, and she introduced the notion that the Drahvin warriors should be test-tube clones, with leader Maaga the only true Drahvin. There was much in the news about the implications of mapping DNA and what it might lead to.
With their blonde beehive hairdo's, the visual inspiration appears to have come from pop diva Dusty Springfield.
Although overall story titles were never intended for the public domain at this time, there has been much fan speculation as to Galaxy 4. Presumably the events of the story take place there, though the only mention of the galaxy is that the Drahvins come from there, and it is 400 dawns away from this planet. Calling a story after the place the aliens come from would be like renaming The Moonbase "Telos", or The Dalek Invasion of Earth "Skaro", so I think we can assume this doomed planet is in Galaxy 4. It is stated often that the Drahvin ship is not very advanced, so travelling just over a year might see them still in their own galaxy - and would they really need to go all the way to a neighbouring galaxy just to find a planet suitable for colonisation?

The Chumblies become the series' first creatures who get their name from someone else. It certainly isn't what their creators, the Rills, call them. Vicki names them, from the way they move. Emms made up the name from "Chum" and "Friendly", and employed a number of made up words in his script to describe their sound and movement - like "chamble", "chutter" and "jink". They are clearly an attempt to come up something to rival the Daleks in their appearance, but they would never return to the series.
There is something about Propaganda running through the story. Maaga refuses to let her warriors listen to the messages that the Chumblies transmit - claiming they are lies designed to lure them into a trap. She frightens her troops with talk about what the Rills will do to them if they capture them - akin to how newspapers described the Germans in World War One. or the Communist threat during the Cold War. If anyone is a metaphor for communism it is the Drahvins, not the Rills. Maaga is clearly part of an elite, with the best food and weapons which are denied to her drone-like subordinates.
As mentioned above, Steven spends much of the story prisoner of the Drahvins. At one point he finds himself trapped in an airlock, as Maaga removes the oxygen. This old trick will be used by other aliens in the future - though not as often as you might think. Steven faces a dilemma - return to captivity with the Dusty Springfields, or go outside and be nabbed by the Chumblies.

The Doctor and Vicki, meanwhile, get to meet the Rills. They are a cross between a walrus and a warthog in appearance. They live on ammonia, and so have to remain in a special compartment in their ship. The Doctor is about to kill them, until Vicki learns they are not the monsters Maaga described. They agree to help the Doctor, and he them. The TARDIS is linked to their spaceship, allowing it to take off, whilst the Drahvins are left to perish as the planet disintegrates. Sadly no photos or footage exists of the climactic moments, but as the TARDIS has already left we can assume it wasn't very spectacular on screen. Probably some shaky camera work then a white-out.
The throw forward to next week's episode is interesting. Vicki notes a planet on the TARDIS scanner and wonders what might be happening there...
Next time: The name's Cory. Marc Cory. Licenced to Kill...

About Me

A Doctor Who fan of long-standing, and not a little sitting / lying down. Originally from Scotland, since 1989 I have worked for a number of homeless charities in and around London. No wife, no kids - so generally have a quiet life. Love history, reading, theatre, cinema and BBC4. Never ITV2.